Our
People

Chris is Chief Executive of Pennon Group Plc, a leading UK environmental infrastructure company covering the water and waste management sectors.

Chris has extensive experience of the regulated business environment and has a comprehensive understanding of the water industry, serving on the Boards of Water UK, British Water and the Institute of Water. Chris was previously a Trustee of the international charity, WaterAid and was also a senior diplomat in Japan.

Hakeem Ogunniran, a Lawyer, Chartered Governance Practitioner and Arbitrator, is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Eximia Realty Co Ltd. Mr Ogunniran possesses extensive knowledge and experience in property development, investment, fund raising and housing finance.  He is a recognized expert on housing development and infrastructure related issues in Africa.

He is also the Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Lagos Building Investment Co Plc. He was at various times a Law Lecturer (University of Lagos) Company Secretary Legal Adviser and Chief Executive Officer of two major organisations including UACN Property Development Company Plc. He was named one of the Top 20 CEOs on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 2013

Paul is currently the Chief Executive of Optivo, one of the largest housing associations in the UK. He is also Honorary Professor at UCL, Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management.

A former Board Member of Gallions Housing Association, Paul has over 20 years’ experience in the affordable housing sector in the UK, as well as in governance and organisational leadership.

Diana is Professor of Global Urbanism, Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, and the Principal Researcher, Human Settlements Group, IIED.

A former Chair of Homeless International, and a current Trustee of the Inqolobane, she has extensive experience academically and strategically, as well as in governance roles, within the urban housing and development sector in the Global South.

Ranil is currently the Global Director of Finance for Save the Children International. He is also a board trustee for South West London Law Centers and Oaktree Australia.

Ranil is a certified practicing accountant and a senior finance executive with over 20 years’ experience in the commercial, chartered accounting and NGO sectors. After moving to an NGO role in Australia in 2014, he spent 3 years in a field-based role as the Regional Finance and Support Services Director for East and Southern Africa.

Currently the Chief Financial Officer of Optivo, Sarah started her career as an external auditor with BDO Stoy Hayward, before specialising in social housing.

Sarah is the Vice Chair of the NHF’s SORP Working Party and sits on the ICAEW social housing sub-committee. She retired from the Board of Lewisham Homes in October 2019 having served for 10 years, where she also chaired the Audit & Risk Committee. Sarah now sits on the Board of Dolphin Square Foundation.

Now retired, Steve worked for nearly four decades in international banking across Asia-Pacific, South America, Europe and the Middle East, a career that culminated in his role as Chief Executive Officer of Barwa Bank, an award-winning Islamic financial institution based in Qatar.

Dhaval is a Senior Fellow at IDFC Foundation (now Artha Global) and Director of Affordable Housing at Anant National University. His work at Artha focuses on housing policy, financial inclusion and urban sustainability. He has set up the department of Affordable Housing at AnantU, India’s first design university. Previously he was the co-founder of First Home Realty Solutions, an affordable housing company that was a pioneer in the affordable housing space in India. FHRS worked on solutions in various capacities across South East Asia and Africa.

He sits on International Advisory Board of the Terwilliger Centre for Innovation in Shelter, Habitat for Humanity International and the Finance Committee of the Mahatma Phule Renewable Energy & Infrastructure Technology Limited.

Ian has been working at the interface between private sector effectiveness and public good for over 25 years.

Ian spent 16 years at the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) where he progressed to Head of Private Sector Development managing a multi-billion $ impact investment portfolio. Ian was Chief Strategy Officer for Crown Agents before joining Reall as CEO in 2018. Ian was named in a list of Top 20 Dynamic CEOs of 2020 by The CEO Publication, was named Cause4s Social Entrepreneur of the Month, August 2021 and a Meaningful Business 100 winner in 2022.

Ian has lived and worked in numerous countries across Africa and Asia. He now resides in London with his wife and two teenage children.

Mewahib is an international development practitioner with over 20 years experience overseas and in the UK spanning various sectors across humanitarian, early recovery, post-conflict reconstruction and development. She brings skills in programme development, business development, institutional funding and resource mobilisation having worked in various funding roles including most recently as Head of Institutional Funding for Oxfam GB and prior to that, leading programmes and business development teams for the British Council in Sudan, Sub-Saharan Africa and for the Darfur Reconstruction and Development Fund.

As Director of Programme and Business Development, Mewahib is playing a strategic leadership role to support Reall’s growth in the full range of revenue streams through boosting collaboration and innovation in our approach. This includes brokering and maintaining strategic relationships with existing and prospective funders to support delivering Reall’s mission of a green affordable homes revolution.

Lucy has over 16 years of experience in international urban development, sustainable cities and affordable housing, and has spent over a decade of her career at Reall.

She played a key role in shaping Reall’s evolution from grant-giving NGO to commercial, market-focused innovator and investor.

At Reall, Lucy is responsible for positioning Reall as a global thought-leader, crowding in actors and resources, addressing market barriers and catalysing climate-smart housing markets that work for people on low-incomes. This includes the first publicly-accessible data dashboard sharing market intelligence and data on Reall’s housing investments, pioneering research and innovations in the climate, fintech and proptech space and strategic collaborations with players such as the UN.

Patrick is a CIMA qualified accountant with extensive experience in financial management, investment and international development, with a particular focus on impact investing in emerging markets.

A multi-linguist investment professional, he started his career in finance at British Telecom in 1998. Over the following decade, he worked for a real estate consultancy firm, in investment banking at JPMorgan and RBS. He also helped setup a micro finance bank in DR Congo in 2009.

Naa is a Certified Expert in Sustainable Finance with over 8 years of international development experience managing and coordinating market shaping and development projects in various sectors, including affordable housing financing, economic development, financial inclusion, climate, and education.

As Climate and Green Buildings Lead, Naa’s role focuses on leading Reall’s climate-smart build portfolio and works to drive the organisation’s capacity to transform emerging markets as a thought and practice-leader in green affordable homes.

Naa holds a master’s degree in Globalisation Business and Development, a Diploma in International Management, certification in Participatory Design for Development and recently completed her EDGE Green Buildings Expert training.

With over 14 years working in HR, Craig is a dynamic and commercially focused senior manager who has delivered cross-sector impact and demonstrated an innate adaptability to meet new business priorities and goals.

Craig is committed to delivering a high quality HR service to meet demand, and has built extensive talent in leadership, change management and employee relations.